Emergency landing...

[Filonian]

If that idiot in the car in front had his wits about it and had put his foot down that would have been a perfect landing!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-55184326


Graham

[Kevin Farnell]

I think calling the diver ahead an 'idiot' is somewhat harsh. Rear view and door mirrors are angled to show what is behind and to the side of you. Not what is behind and above you. The driver ahead would therefore not be aware of what was happening until the plane was practically upon them. You can see the brake lights of the two cars behind come on at the same time. This is the point at which the aircraft becomes visible to the drivers and they are looking forward. The driver ahead was possible also confused/shocked as to what was happening (they would have had at most a second or so to figure it out).
I'm just pleased that it all ended well with no-one hurt.

Kevin

[blanston12]

I agree with Kevin, looking at the video the driver had 3 seconds from the time the aircraft touched down and its wing impacted the car, having spent a lot of time on american freeways your more concerned with what's in front or beside you, the aircraft would be coming up on his blind spot with only the wingtip in the mirrors and given the frequency aircraft landing on freeways (very rare) I can't fault the driver much. I don't even think the DMV drivers handbook even mentions what to do when an aircraft is landing on the road beside you.

[Airspeed]

Come on, you blokes,
Graham was just having a joke about spoiling a good landing.
I'm not sure how I'd react if I saw strobe lights right behind me, but I hope that I wouldn't slow down.
Hard to tell the relative speeds at that distance; even accelerating may not have helped.

[adysmith]

Maybe US highways are wider than UK motorways but I have often pondered if I would try a motorway if I had an engine failure in a single engine aeroplane, the answer is almost emphatically NO, the risk of hitting the wingtips on lampposts is WAY too high given the average light aircraft wingspan and width of carriageways in UK.
Pilot was extremely lucky!

[Airspeed]

Maybe US highways are wider than UK motorways but I have often pondered if I would try a motorway if I had an engine failure in a single engine aeroplane, the answer is almost emphatically NO, the risk of hitting the wingtips on lampposts is WAY too high given the average light aircraft wingspan and width of carriageways in UK.
Pilot was extremely lucky!

We've had some landings on main roads, but I don't think on freeways. Interfering poles and wires have generally made a mess of things, BUT I think that if I had the choice between hitting a factory wall, or risking my luck on a road, I would not choose the factory.

[Scorpius]

I can just imagine the insurance claim form,

'My car was hit by an aeroplane whilst it was trying to land'

'Yeah, of course it was'.

Nev

[cstorey]

The only idiot here was the pilot of the aircraft . What he did was a recipe for a catastrophic outcome, not only for him, but more importantly, for quite a number of completely innocent third parties

[Nigel H-J]

The only idiot here was the pilot of the aircraft .

Think that is a bit harsh on the pilot, after all it was dark and the only lighting around apart from minor roads and houses was the motorway. Had it been me I would not chance trying to land in a field that I could not make out!

Another point is that the pilot would also have been frantically trying to restart the engine so as to avoid a crash landing but without success so a decision has to be made and I would certainly not criticise him making that call to land on the motorway, he was obviously aware of the traffic and did the best he could, a life or death decision

Regards
Nigel.

[cstorey]

Interesting : having supervised literally hundreds of practice forced landings in my time as an instructor, I never once had a student suggest an attempt to land on a road . I stand by what I said : it was a stroke of pure luck that this pilot did not cause an absolute catastrophe

Edit : I should also add that the only instance known to me in the UK of an aeroplane crash landing ( inadvertently ) on the M62 motorway on short finals for RW 09 at Barton sadly produced catastrophic injury ( leg amputations ) to occupants of one of several vehicles with which the Max Holste Broussard G-BKPU collided